2005/03/24 by Scott J. Kenyon, Benjamin C. Bromley
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Debris #Debris disk #Formation and evolution of the Solar System #Meteorology #Observable #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #Solar System #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Terrestrial planet #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/430461
published as Astron.J.130:269-279,2005 · Astronomical Journal, in press; 23 pages of text, 11 figures, and 1 table
arxiv created 2005/03/24 · openalex publication_date 2005/06/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We investigate the prospects for detecting dust from two-body collisions during the late stages of planet formation at 1–150 AU. We develop an analytic model to describe the formation of a dusty cloud of debris and use numerical coagulation and N -body calculations to predict observable signals from these events. In a minimum mass solar nebula, collisions of 100–1000 km objects at distances of 3–5 AU or less from the parent star are observable at mid-IR wavelengths as bright clumps or rings of dust. At 24 μm, the clumps are ∼0.1–1 mag brighter than emission from dust in the background debris disk. In edge-on systems, dusty clumps produce eclipses with depths of ≲1.0 mag that last for ∼100 orbital periods. Large-scale surveys for transits from exosolar planets, using satellites such as Kepler , can plausibly detect these eclipses and provide important constraints on the terrestrial environment for ages of ≲100–300 Myr.